Robotic end effectors, such as robotic grippers, are often provided at the distal ends of robotic manipulators, such as robotic arms, to enable grasping and manipulating of objects. While there are several useful robotic grippers in the market, they often have one or more drawbacks that interfere with their usability. For example, many such grippers have only two fingers and are capable of manipulating only some objects. Others have multiple fingers, but are complicated and, therefore, difficult to control. Lower cost grippers often do not comprise features that assist in their operation, such as cameras and proximity sensors. While other grippers comprise such features, they tend to be prohibitively expensive and, therefore, out of reach for many.
Irrespective of cost, many grippers either only can be used with particular robotic arms or must be integrated with the robotic arm to which it is attached. Such integration typically requires a skilled programmer to write computer code that enables the robotic arm to communicate with and control the gripper.
In view of the above discussion, it can be appreciated that it would be desirable to have an end effector, such as a robotic gripper, that avoids one or more of the aforementioned drawbacks.